Veeva "deepens partnership with Salesforce"; Open to interpretation?

Tom Paine



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(Some phrases from an earlier version were modified for increased clarity.)


Veeva Systems ( NYSE: VEEV ) built its initial platform, Veeva CRM, on top of Salesforce's Force.com.platform. It has since added several elements to what it calls its 'Commercial Cloud' (encompassing CRM) which are integrated with Veeva CRM. Veeva remains committed both contractually and strategically to Salesforce for a long time, the company assures me. (The current contract actually extends through 2025.)

The other side of Veeva's business, regulatory and clinical, which more than doubled in revenue in the last quarter and may in the not too distant future account for a majority of Veeva revenue, is built upon Veeva Vault, which is a completely proprietary Veeva platform.

There is no publicly known point of contention between Veeva and Salesforce, though the arrangement takes a big bite out of Veeva's margins. Veeva CEO Peter Gassner, who came out of Salesforce, knew the Force.com platform because he had a hand in developing it, and it suited Veeva's original purpose of getting up and running quickly with low fixed investment. It was a brilliant strategy. But the future of the Veeva-Salesforce relationship beyond Commercial Cloud seemed unclear to some outside observers. .

Meanwhile, Salesforce has used Veeva as Exhibit A in portraying the potential for building vertical market solutions on its platform. And Veeva was on the list of Salesforce's potential acquisition targets that was hacked and wikileaked late last year.

Yesterday, under the headline "Veeva Deepens Partnership With Salesforce, Announces New Product Integration ," Veeva announced new integration between Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Veeva CRM, as well as support for Salesforce Service Cloud with Veeva Vault.

Salesforce Chairman and CEO Mark Benioff was quoted as saying, “Veeva has been an outstanding partner over the past decade, and Peter has been an outstanding CEO. Our expanded collaboration is a great next step for our joint customers and we look forward to working with Veeva into the next decade to help move the life sciences industry forward.”


This could mean little, or it could be significant. The variable cost of an incremental SaaS subscription is minimal. I verified today with a Veeva spokesperson that the two Salesforce clouds will not be sold as add-ons to Veeva customers, they will just be available to them, and integrated with the Veeva clouds.

This availability is definitely a benefit to Veeva customers, though its not clear whether this is primarily economic, or ease of use through integration. Its also not clear to me what Salesforce has to gain economically, if it is virtually giving away the life sciences market for two very important clouds. Perhaps this should be seen in the overall context of the dynamics of the Salesforce-Veeva relationship. For Salesforce, it could be a "land and expand' strategy to ultimately position itself to sell other clouds (think Einstein, IoT, Health Cloud) into Life Sciences. But anyway, it leaves the door open for future collaboration between the two cloud companies.

Based in Pleasanton, CA, Veeva has significant market development resources in Radnor, as well as a large customer base in the region.



Veeva Deepens Partnership With Salesforce, Announces New Product Integration





Veeva Deepens Partnership With Salesforce, Announces New Product Integration

Business Wire Business WireMarch 14, 2017
PLEASANTON, Calif. & BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Veeva Systems (VEEV) today announced new integration between Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Veeva CRM, as well as support for Salesforce Service Cloud with Veeva Vault. The companies are building upon their long-standing partnership to help life sciences deliver a more coordinated and consistent experience for healthcare professionals. For the past 10 years, Veeva has been Salesforce’s preferred worldwide CRM provider for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Over this time, the two companies have extended their innovation and leadership positions in cloud and together now have more than 250 joint customers.

“Veeva has been an outstanding partner over the past decade, and Peter has been an outstanding CEO," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO at Salesforce. “Our expanded collaboration is a great next step for our joint customers and we look forward to working with Veeva into the next decade to help move the life sciences industry forward.”

“Salesforce is a cloud pioneer that has transformed how companies connect with their customers,” said Peter Gassner, founder and CEO of Veeva. “We’re excited to build upon our 10-year partnership and, together, help life sciences companies develop deeper relationships with healthcare professionals and create a better customer experience.”

Veeva and Salesforce Deliver More Effective Customer Interactions

Built on the Salesforce Platform, Veeva CRM is core to Veeva Commercial Cloud, which brings together customer data, compliant content, and multichannel engagement for life sciences companies to deliver the experience healthcare professionals have come to expect. The integration of Veeva CRM and Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows information to be shared between the two cloud solutions so that sales and marketing teams can have a complete view of customer engagement.

Marketing activities and data from Salesforce Marketing Cloud are available in Veeva CRM, while all Veeva CRM data and multichannel interactions, including Veeva CRM Approved Email, Veeva CLM, and Veeva CRM Suggestions, flow directly into Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Now life sciences customers that use both cloud solutions can have full visibility into face-to-face and digital interactions so they can deliver a cohesive and consistent experience to healthcare professionals.

Veeva Vault for Compliant Content to Salesforce Service Cloud

Veeva Vault is a unified suite of applications that delivers a single source of truth for regulated content and data across the enterprise. Life sciences companies that use both Veeva Vault and Salesforce Service Cloud can respond to and fulfill customer service requests through Salesforce Service Cloud with approved, compliant content from Veeva Vault.

Healthcare professionals rely on fast, accurate information from pharma and biotech customer service teams. Through the Veeva Vault API, teams can author, search, and access compliant documents without ever leaving Salesforce Service Cloud. Additionally, all doctor interactions are logged so that customer service and support can track progress through analytics tools in Salesforce Service Cloud and Veeva Vault.

Additional Information

For more on Veeva CRM: veeva.com/CRM
For more on Veeva Vault: veeva.com/Vault
Connect with Veeva on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/veeva-systems
Follow @veevasystems on Twitter: twitter.com/veevasystems
Like Veeva on Facebook: facebook.com/veevasystems

About Veeva Systems

Veeva Systems Inc. is a leader in cloud-based software for the global life sciences industry. Committed to innovation, product excellence, and customer success, Veeva has more than 500 customers, ranging from the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotechs. Veeva is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. For more information, visit veeva.com.

Salesforce, Salesforce Platform and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

Forward-looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, including the market demand for and acceptance of Veeva’s products and services, the results from use of Veeva’s products and services, and general business conditions, particularly in the life sciences industry. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon Veeva’s historical performance and its current plans, estimates, and expectations, and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Veeva’s expectations as of the date of this press announcement. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and Veeva disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Additional risks and uncertainties that could affect Veeva’s financial results are included under the captions, “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in the company’s filing on Form 10-Q for the period ended October 31, 2016. This is available on the company’s website at veeva.com under the Investors section and on the SEC’s website at sec.gov. Further information on potential risks that could affect actual results will be included in other filings Veeva makes with the SEC from time to time.

® 2017 Veeva Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Veeva and the Veeva logo are trademarks of Veeva Systems Inc.

Veeva Systems Inc. owns other registered and unregistered trademarks.


View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170314005568/en/





HIStalk Interviews Bill Marvin, CEO, InstaMed




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This interview the website HISTalk did with Bill Marvin, CEO of Philadelphia-based InstaMed, will probably provide the most insight on what the company is all about and the problems InstaMed is tackling in healthcare payment systems.

Bill Marvin

HIStalk Interviews Bill Marvin, CEO, InstaMed

Founded in 2004, InstaMed has raised $126 million in venture funding, per Crunchbase.




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